The EU market for new commercial vehicles has continued its positive start to 2017, according to March data from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA).
Demand increased 10 per cent in March, totaling 266,902 units and is mainly due to Easter falling in March last year and in April this year, said ACEA.
Demand was sustained by all segments and across most of the major EU markets, according to the data, with Spain (+24.3 per cent), Germany (+17.3 per cent), Italy (+17 per cent) and France (+13.7 per cent) all posting double-digit percentage gains, although registrations declined slightly in the UK (-1.3 per cent).
At the end of the first Quarter of 2017, the data shows that the European market expanded by 7.5 per cent, counting 606,230 new commercial vehicles. Spain (+20.4 per cent) and Italy (+13.4 per cent) posted highest increases, followed by France (+9.4 per cent) and Germany (+7.5 per cent), while the UK market remained stable (-0.2 per cent).
March 2017 results show a lift in the heavy truck segment over 16 tonnes – often used as an indicator for trailer sales – posting growth of 6.1 per cent with 29,971 new vehicles registered. Most of the EU’s major markets contributed to this growth, especially Italy (+60.1 per cent), though the UK market faced a downturn (-11.7 per cent).
Medium-duty truck registrations were largely similar to those in the heavy truck segment in March, with Italy again posting the highest growth figures (+52.9 per cent) followed by Spain (+16.9 per cent) and Germany (+14.1 per cent) – only the United Kingdom posted a decline (-6.4 per cent).